


The Journey Ahead

by thewightknight



Series: First Order Husbands [5]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Anal Sex, Inappropriate Use of the Force, M/M, Oral Sex, PHENOMENAL AMOUNT OF SMUT, Smut, angry space boyfriends, come with the dark side, come with the force, first order husbands, itty bitty plot advancement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 19:33:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5755558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snoke entrusts Hux with a special mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Journey Ahead

**Author's Note:**

> Despite the tags, there really is a decent amount of plot here, and I’d actually expected this part to wrap up the story arc, but I got a bit carried away with the sexy times. I hope you don’t mind.

Snoke didn’t summon Hux again for three more days, thank goodness, and he made no reference to Ren during their brief conversation, despite the bruises still evident on Hux’s neck above his uniform collar. 

After another week of poking his nose into every corner and finding not a single thing out of place and everything operating at optimum efficiency Hux turned his attention to the old mine in sheer desperation for something to do. The planet’s assay showed an abundance of both baradium and chromium. Mining shafts had been enlarged and reinforced for the base and the original mining equipment was still tucked away into corners. It took almost two weeks to get it installed and running again. It was centuries old but the machinery was made to last and easy enough to put back in working order. The hard part was making sure the planet still looked abandoned from the surface, not disturbing the carefully crafted illusion.

He could tell the troopers were puzzled at first at his insistence but he’d shortly begun to suspect that they were as bored as he, stranded out here with nothing to do but drill. He hadn't been exaggerating when he'd referred to them as the best of the best. When they began to throw themselves into the rehab he knew he’d been right. 

When he reported to Snoke that he was ready to begin operations the Supreme Leader gave his approval, with instructions to stay clear of a portion deep in the northwest quadrant. That evening he pulled up records and determined the area the area Snoke indicated had been mined out long before their arrival. There was no reason why they would have ventured there, no reason why Snoke should have mentioned it. Tapping his fingers on the display, he smiled. It looked like he now knew where Ren was spending all his time when he wasn’t sleeping in Hux’s bed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A single cheer sounded from the ranks when the first ingots rolled off the line, fading away in uncertainty when the trooper realized no one else was joining him. Hux shook his head. "You can do better than that!" he called out. There was a shuffling of feet and a turning of helmets and then another cheer rang out, and then several more, and it never became a chorus but it would do. Hux had planned to say more but suddenly the ground began to shake under his feet and the rumble of a distant explosion tore through the cavern. He staggered, catching himself on a nearby piece of machinery as pain shot through his body and the ground shook under his feet again, hard enough that he lost his balance, falling to his knees. He must have blacked out for an instant because he could hear voices from a distance, almost drowned out by the ringing in his ears. He forced his eyes open and focused his swimming vision on the crowd of white armored boots that surrounded him. 

The voices finally resolved into words. “General? General Hux? Are you alright, sir?” 

Hands were on his arms, helping him to his feet. Once standing, he pushed them off, straightening his coat.

“I’m fine. What’s our status?” 

“Our status, sir?” The trooper sounded confused.

“The base, trooper.” There was a shuffling of feet and the troopers looked back and forth between themselves.

“Um, the base is fine, sir.”

“But what about the explosion?”

“There wasn’t any explosion, General. You just, well, fell, sir.”

It seemed to be true. There were no alarms sounding, Hux realized, no emergency lights. Still unsteady on his feet, he pushed his way through the crowd of troopers to the nearest control bank and began a systems check. Nothing showed on the scanners. There had been no event registered anywhere in the base.

“Um, sir?” The trooper’s voice was uncertain. “Maybe we should take you to medical?”

There was only one reason he could think of why he would have felt an upheaval that none of his troopers had noted. “Kylo.” Without another word he turned, practically running from the chamber.

His plan had been to commandeer one of the ore transports and head to the northwest sector so it was a shock when he found himself on foot outside of Snoke’s chamber. The door opened in front of him and his body moved of its own accord, walking the length of the chamber and coming to stand in front of Snoke, who stared at him the entire way, head cocked, head resting on his hand. 

“You noticed the disturbance. Interesting,” Snoke said, and Hux found himself in control of his body again. 

“Lord Ren?” he started to ask, and Snoke gestured for silence. He tried not to fidget as Snoke continued to stare at him, bit back the words that strained to burst forth, sighed in relief when Snoke began to speak again.

“I have plans for Lord Ren, General Hux. I have been cultivating him since he was a child, and he has almost reached his full potential. There are extraordinary things ahead for him.” He paused and Hux braced himself, waiting again for the blow that would end his life for interfering. When nothing happened he looked up in surprise, finally realizing Snoke was waiting for some kind of response from him.

“Yes, Supreme Leader.” That seemed safe enough.

“Recently, I have been forced to accommodate my plans to also include you, General Hux.”

Hux stopped himself just short of gaping in astonishment. That was the last thing he’d expected to hear.

“Did you think I would not have noticed your growing influence on him?” Hux shook his head in denial. “With your help, it seems he will become greater than even I had planned. That is good.”

Hux still had no idea what to say. The Supreme Leader was praising him? He approved of his relationship with Ren? Snoke didn’t seem to be looking for a response from him this time, thank goodness.

“The disturbance you sensed was Ren destroying his lightsaber. It has always been unstable, and recent events have made it even more so. Now that he is so close to complete his training it has become a liability, limiting his potential. You will take him personally even deeper into the Unknown Regions to acquire a Kyber crystal, from which he will construct a new lighsaber that will be more worthy of him. I will provide you with coordinates but you will have to find your own path there. It will not be an easy journey. There is no direct route, no map to follow, as the only one was in Emperor Palpatine’s possession and was lost with him, but I have faith in your skills, General.”

Hux felt himself growing light-headed, from both relief and the unexpected praise. “I will not fail you, Supreme Leader.”

“Very good, General Hux. I have already issued orders to have Lord Ren’s shuttle outfitted for your journey. You will depart as soon as it is prepared.” This time the dismissal didn’t seem casual, not a brush-off or a belittlement of his skills. He’d been charged with an important task, with the care of a man who was becoming as important to him as he was to the Supreme Leader, if for vastly different reasons. 

A trooper was waiting for him outside Snoke’s chamber, saluting Hux as he approached.

“General Hux, sir. Lord Ren is in the medbay. He is injured, but refuses to allow anyone but you to treat him.”

Ren still wore his tattered trousers and the armor they’d scavenged from Dantooine and his hair was wild, looking as if the only attention it had seen in days had come from his fingers. His hands were blistered and bleeding, with shards of metal embedded in them. There was no sign of destruction in the medbay, Hux was surprised to see. It also looked like Ren hadn’t inflicted any additional damage on himself. Well, yet at least, Hux amended as he examined the wounds. 

“I can’t believe you’re still wearing this,” Hux said as he picked the shards out of Ren’s palms. 

“You’re just noticing now?”

“Well, you haven’t been wearing anything to bed, and that’s the only place I’ve seen you recently.”

There was a thunk outside as one of the troopers in the hallway dropped his blaster. Hux let out a long breath and pinched the bridge of his nose to try to stave off the headache he’d just given himself. Of course these troopers wouldn’t have fled as soon as his back was turned and had stayed at their posts outside the medbay. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d called them the best of the best. Even the most rigorous of discipline couldn’t keep them from reacting when their commander confirmed that he’d been regularly sleeping with the feared leader of the Knights of Ren though, it seemed.

Ren shrugged, seemingly oblivious to the commotion outside, then winced as the gesture pulled at his wounded hands. “I don’t see why. It covers me.”

Hux got the last visible fragment out and set the forceps aside. “You’re wearing something we took off a dead man on top of rags, Ren. This base has state of the art fabricators. Use them, please?” Hux asked as he picked up the scanner. Its readings confirmed that there was nothing buried under the skin, so he slathered Ren’s hands with bacta and wrapped them loosely in bandages. 

Ren was fading, he could tell. “Lie down,” Hux said, and Ren didn’t argue. He shifted about on the exam table until he found a comfortable position, hands folded carefully across his chest.

“Later,” he said as his eyes drifted closed. 

“Later,” Hux agreed. There was another burst of shuffling feet from the corridor as he leaned down, placing a kiss on Ren’s forehead. 

“It didn’t want to die,” Ren murmured just as he was leaving.

When he exited the medbay he found all the troopers standing at attention with their backs pressed against the wall, facing outward, staring at the bulkhead directly ahead of them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Upsilon-class shuttles weren’t meant for extended trips and Hux had been bemused and just a little embarrassed when he realized the troopers had only retrofitted one chamber for living quarters. It would be cramped, especially when Hux insisted on an extra compliment of spare parts and equipment, but Snoke had been correct in selecting the shuttle as their best option for the journey. Giving up the increased defensive and scanning capabilities of the shuttle in favor of something with more space but also more limited systems was not an option.

They could have departed the next day but Hux insisted on waiting, despite Snoke’s order that they leave as soon as the shuttle was outfitted, allowing Ren another day to heal. For once he didn’t feel the need to check and recheck preparations, but when a sergeant approached him and asked for his review he gave it. They’d thought of a few things he’d overlooked, even, and he made sure to let them know it.

Hux had noticed something different in these troopers’ behavior, a change in the weeks since he’d arrived, but it wasn’t until just before they left that he pinned down what it was. You became an expert in reading body language when you were surrounded with uniformly faceless suits of armor and he was used to seeing fear in the movements of the troops around him. There was always a difference in the troopers assigned to Captain Phasma compared to other units, and he just now realized what that difference was. Respect. 

Every trooper who wasn’t essential to manning a station was in the docking bay when they made their departure, lined up in rows, making an aisle to the shuttle’s ramp. As Hux and Ren walked between them they saluted as one, maintaining the salute until the shuttle departed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Astronavigation was as much of an art as it was a science. Hux made a jump in lightspeed to the edge of the charts the First Order had for the Unknown Regions and then dropped them back into realspace. This is where the enhanced scanners of the Upsilon-class shuttle earned their keep. From here on out they’d coast through realspace while the scanners made a thorough analysis of what lay in front of them (if you could use the word “front” in the non-directional vastness of space), map out the best routes through that section of space and make a short jump to the edge of the scanners’ range, and then they would repeat the process again. With the distance they needed to travel it would take them over a month to reach their destination. The journey back, at least, would take a fraction of the time, as they would be able to string together each leg in reverse and make the trip with one jump through hyperspace.

It took the scanners several hours to complete their work and then Hux had to review each possible route the nav computers proposed before selecting one and making their next jump. He erred on the side of caution each time, choosing longer but safer routes. The Supreme Leader had not impressed on him any great urgency, just the charge to keep Ren safe, so keep him safe he would. Before each jump he even insisted that they both secure themselves with safety harnesses and Ren rolled his eyes at him but complied. 

Ren joined him in the cockpit each time before he dropped them into hyperspace, folding himself into the copilot’s chair, occasionally asking questions about the area they were venturing into. He had taken advantage of the fabricators before they’d left and his choice of clothing had surprised Hux when he’d first seen it. Instead of the stiff robes and wide belt he’d favored previously, he’d appeared in a loose shirt and tunic over leggings, and was wearing soft, slipper-style shoes instead of tall boots. It suited him, Hux thought, watching Ren sprawl casually next to him, and when he started to imagine how easy his hands would slide up under these new clothes he scolded himself, forcing his thoughts back to the task at hand. He set the scanners to mapping out the new region in front of him and then leaned back, stretching, wincing as his neck cracked.

Ren had been quiet through this last jump, staring out the viewing port, and Hux was startled when he broke the silence.

“Hux, I’ve been thinking.” He paused and fell silent again.

“Thinking about what?” Hux prompted.

“It has occurred to me that this is the first time we have ever been completely alone.”

There was something in his voice, a huskiness that caused Hux to swallow in a mouth suddenly gone dry.

Ren continued. “It has also occurred to me that there is no timeline, no schedule, for this task we have been set.” Hux jumped as invisible lips grazed the pulse point in his neck. “And so I’d like to find out …” Non-existent teeth nipped at his earlobe “ … just what exactly it would take …” Phantom fingers began to pull and twist at his nipples under his clothes, and others wrapped themselves around his cock, squeezing “ … to make you scream.” Suddenly the touches were gone. Ren unstrapped himself from the co-pilot’s chair and rose. “But not here.”

“And not on the medbay table either?” Hux asked as he tried to convince his fingers to release from where they’d clenched around the armrests of the pilot’s chair. He forgot what he was doing momentarily when Ren smiled at him, a shy sweet expression that made his heart lurch painfully in his chest.

“Not on the medbay table either,” Ren confirmed. He cocked his head, still smiling, and held out his hand. “Coming?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Hux replied as he scrabbled at the damn buckles of his harness, and there it was, the thing he’d sworn he’d make happen but never expected to actually occur. He’d finally done it, though. Kylo Ren laughed.

Hux managed to get his fingers working again and hit the release on the harness. The touches resumed, teasing him, drawing him forward and Ren laughed again as he fell into his arms. He only had his two physical hands but he put them to good use, working his way up underneath Ren’s tunic as they stumbled together through the corridor to their sleeping chamber. 

He’d been complaining about how small, how cramped, the shuttle was not too long ago, hadn’t he? So why was it taking the so long to reach their dammed bed?

“Your control has gotten better,” he managed to gasp out, was rewarded with yet another new set of caresses. Were the touches actual physical manifestations of the Force or was the manipulation all mental, just a triggering of nerve impulses? He didn’t know, and truth be told he didn’t care. “I wonder what it would take to make you lose it?” he panted, relishing the surprise on Ren’s face as Hux pushed him back into the wall of the corridor and dropped to his knees in front of him. 

His fingers trembled as he worked to free Ren’s cock from his trousers, and Ren’s onslaught faltered as Hux’s fingers found him, dug almost painfully into his skin when he took the tip into his mouth. He pushed himself down on Ren’s length, taking in as much as he could, grinning around Ren’s cock at his reaction, and there was a fleeting sensation of thousands of insects crawling under his clothing and then nothing. 

He heard a creak of metal and looked up to see Ren grasping a beam overhead with both hands, head thrown back. He ran through the ship’s systems briefly in his head, came to the conclusion that the beam was not a primary support and that no wiring ran through it and increased his efforts, swirling his tongue along Ren’s length as he drew back and then swallowing him back down again. 

He used every trick in his arsenal on Ren, and as he watched, the beam twisted, the metal groaning in protest in chorus with Ren’s moans. Ren was too close, he decided, and he drew off, letting his teeth scrape just barely along Ren’s length and Ren cried out, Hux’s name echoing down the corridor. Hux sat back, savoring the view as Ren panted, upright apparently only by his grip above his head. “Well, I now know what it takes to make you scream,” he taunted, laughing when he was hoisted up, meeting Ren’s lips, letting Ren taste himself on his tongue.

“Bed. Now,” Ren ordered when they broke apart.

They left a trail of clothing in the corridor. Hux hoped his coat had torn along the seams but if it hadn’t there wouldn’t be anyone to see. They fell into bed together in a tangle of limbs. Ren had abandoned all attempts to touch him with anything but his body but that was still more than enough to set his nerve endings aflame. They’d been provided with an actual bed, framed, with a small cabinet set in the headboard and he scrabbled it open, fingers groping blindly for the tube of silicone gel he’d deposited there during his inspection. Finally he found it, and then Ren’s hand closed around it, pulling it from his grip.

“My turn,” Ren whispered into his ear, and Hux found himself on his back, arms pinned above his head, Ren straddling him. Ren had regained some measure of control, he realized, as the invisible fingers were back, teasing the skin along the underside of his arms and along his sides. There was no budging the hold on his wrists but the rest of him was free to writhe under Ren’s touches as Ren proceeded to set tiny licks of lightning rippling across his chest. The push of a physical finger into him went almost unnoticed at first, just one more touch among many, but as Ren began to work himself further in, began to find a rhythm, the physical sensations began to overwhelm the noncorporeal, and when Ren brushed up against his prostate he bit back a cry as he arched up off the mattress. 

Ren wanted him to scream, he’d said. He’d make him work for it, Hux vowed, grinding his teeth together to keep in his cries, eyes squeezed closed in concentration as Ren worked him open. 

“Hux, look at me.”

Hux’s eyes flew open at the command, and he bit back a curse at what he saw. Ren’s hand hovered barely an inch above Hux’s skin, glowing blue with contained energy, and as he watched Ren let his fingers trail down Hux’s chest, lower and lower, lightning arcing between them. A whimper escaped him as Ren’s hand neared his stomach, dangerously close now to the tip of his engorged cock. The lightning played along his belly, and he could see the ripple of muscles under his skin as he tried to pull away, but Ren’s hold remained fast. 

Closer and closer it came and he strained for control until finally the first jagged bolt hit and he couldn’t hold it in any more, a scream ripping from his throat as the lightning played up and down his length. There were hands on his hips, physical hands, and then Ren drove into him, forcing another scream from him as lightning exploded outward from the base of his spine and his orgasm ripped through him. He found his arms suddenly free, but could only grasp weakly at Ren’s shoulders as he slammed into him, unable even to do anything but barely breathe beneath the onslaught. There was nothing left to Ren either but a primal rhythm, and his breathing was harsh and ragged in Hux’s ears. He drove in one last time and Hux felt his release tear through him with one final thrust and then Ren collapsed on top of him. 

He had no idea how long they lay there afterwards. Ren was heavy on top of him, but not unpleasantly so, and as his breathing slowed and he regained control of his limbs he began tracing lazy circles along Ren’s spine, listening to his breath hitch in response. Finally Ren rolled off of him with a groan.

“That was ….” Ren trailed off.

“Spectacular?” Hux offered and was rewarded with a chuckle.

“I’ll go with that. And just think. This journey’s just begun.”

They did have a whole month ahead of them at least, yes. Gods, Hux thought. He was a dead man.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come say hi over on [tumblr](http://thewightknight.tumblr.com/).


End file.
